This statute also is known as the Archeological Recovery Act and the Moss-Bennett
bill, the latter referring to the primary sponsors of the bills in the Senate
and House that lead to the act. Its legislative and legal titles are: Public
Law 93-291 and 16 U.S.C.469-469c. Passed and signed into law in 1974, this act
amended and expanded the Reservoir Salvage Act of 1960. The AHPA required that
Federal agencies provide for "...the preservation of historical and archeological
data (including relics and specimens) which might otherwise be irreparably lost
or destroyed as the result of...any alteration of the terrain caused as a result
of any Federal construction project of federally licensed activity or program
(Section 1)." This greatly expanded the number and range of Federal agencies
that had to take archeological resources into account when executing, funding,
or licensing projects. The Reservoir Salvage Act had required such attention
only of Federal agencies, mainly the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation,
that constructed reservoirs and related structures.

The AHPA built upon the national policy, set out in the Historic Sites Act of
1935, "...to provide for the preservation of historic American sites, buildings,
objects, and antiquities of national significance...". The AHPA expanded
the policy by focusing attention on significant resources and data, but does
not require that they be shown to be of "national" significance. The
connection between the 1935 statute and the AHPA is mentioned explicitly in
the first section of the statute.

The statute is in the tradition of "salvage archaeology" as developed
extensively in the River Basin Salvage Program from the late 1940s onwards.
The impetus for AHPA was the destruction of archaeological sites throughout
the country, frequently by actions funded or otherwise supported by Federal
agencies, but not covered by the Reservoir Salvage Act, which required archeological
salvage as part of dam projects (Davis 1972). The chief archaeological instigators
of the statute were Carl Chapman of the University of Missouri and Charles R.
McGimsey of the Arkansas Archeological Survey. The aim of the proponents of
the act was to require all agencies of the Federal government to undertake archeology
as part of their actions that would result in the destruction of archeological
sites.

The drafters of the act, however, did not explicitly relate this legislation
with the then-developing approach to archeological preservation as part of the
wider historic preservation movement. This latter approach, based upon the implementation
of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), eventually came to
emphasize the use of planning, the importance of the National Register of Historic
Places for site protection, project review under Section 106 of the NHPA, and
the preservation of sites in situ when possible and feasible. It took several
years of intense discussion and experimentation to develop regulations and procedures
that completely integrated AHPA into the statutory framework yielding the present
effective overall archeology and historic preservation program. The most important
contribution of AHPA is that it made it clear that all Federal agencies were
authorized to fund archeological investigations, reports, and other kinds of
activities to mitigate the impacts of their projects on important archeological
sites. A second important accomplishment was the pressure brought upon Federal
agency managers during the process of lobbying for passage of the bill to meet
their archeological responsibilities. Finally, the extensive lobbying efforts
by individual archeologists and archeological organizations between 1969 when
the bill was first drafted and its passage in 1974 alerted much of the archeological
professional and avocational community in the United States to the impact that
government actions were having on archeological resources and the importance
of keeping alert to public statutes and regulations, government programs, and
new legislation (McGimsey 1985).

The statute assigns the Secretary of the Interior with substantial authority
to act for the preservation of historical and archeological data and remains.
Section 3 allows for the Secretary to assist other Federal agencies and even
private organizations or individuals in meeting the historical and archeological
preservation requirements under this statute if the project is expected to result
in the loss or destruction of significant scientific, historical, or archeological
data. Section 4 authorizes the Secretary, upon notification that significant
historical or archeological data may be irrevocably lost or destroyed to undertake
necessary studies independent of, although with some consultation with, the
Federal agency responsible for undertaking, funding, or licensing the project.
This aspect of the statute is carried out for the Secretary by the Departmental
Consulting Archeologist in two ways. First, through "unanticipated discovery
procedures" that can be initiated by agency staff or others when archeological
resources are discovered unexpectedly during a Federal undertaking following
the completion of Section 106 (of the NHPA) procedures. The procedures are designed
to reach a means of avoiding unnecessary damage to significant archeological
resources by modification of project design or timely and effective data recovery
of threatened remains. Typically, a consensus is sought among the agency archeologist
or consultant, agency or project proponents, the State Historic Preservation
Officer, Advisory Council for Historic Preservation staff, and the Department
of the Interior staff. Agencies that do not wish to use this set of procedures,
have the alternative of following those set up as part of the Advisory Council's
procedures (36 CFR 800.11).

Section 5 assigns the Secretary several roles in coordinating historical or
archeological activities authorized by this statute, including consultation
about the ownership and appropriate repositories for artifacts and other remains
recovered by investigations conducted under the statute. This is one of the
statutory authorities for the government wide regulations for the curation and
care of Federal archeological collections and associated records (36 CFR 79).
Section 5 also calls for the Secretary to compile a report for Congress on archeological
survey and recovery activities authorized under this statute. This particular
requirement is one of the bases for the Secretary of the Interior's Report to
Congress on Federal Archeological Activities and Programs (e.g., Keel, et al.
1989; McManamon, et al. 1993). The Departmental Consulting Archeologist, National
Park Service carries out this reporting requirement for the Secretary.

Section 7 of the statute authorizes Federal agencies responsible for projects
to transfer to the Secretary of the Interior funds to assist them in meeting
their responsibilities, up to 1% of the total amount authorized for the project.
Differing interpretations of this section have lead to a general understanding
that it also limited agencies to expenditures for archeological data recovery
of 1% of projects' authorized total funding amount. In 1980, Section 208 of
Public Law 96-515) provided a means by which agencies could obtain a waiver
of the 1% limit with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Interior and the
notification of Congress. The Departmental Consulting Archeologist, National
Park Service is delegated to carry out the review and concurrence with any 1%
waiver requests for the Secretary. Section 7 also authorized specific funding
amounts for the use of the Secretary of the Interior to carry out investigations
allowed under Sections 3 and 4 of the statute, however, these amounts were not
often appropriated and the last year for which they were authorized was Fiscal
Year 1983.